"Why the Gulf Oil Spill Isn't Going Away" By: Joel K. Bourne, Jr. for National Geographic News, Published September, 15 2010. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/09/100915-gulf-oil-spill-bp-top-kill-science-environment/
Summary:
The Gulf oil spill was the worst oil spill to U.S. waters. BP is planning to stop the damage this week. The discovery of the widespread oil on the sea floor suggests that this problem has just gotten started. In early August government thought that the oil spill was more than 3 quarters of the way gone. Turns out that it wasn't. There is layers of oil on the ocean floor. In some places the oil was up to 2 inches thick. In a core sample the oil was covering dead organisms like shrimp and marine worms. They are ignoring the methane gas that comes with the oil because it is less toxic than the oil and breaks down faster. The oxygen level has to stay high so it is easier for the microbes to break down the oil. The oil has spread up to the west Florida shelf. It has gotten in the spawning area of commercial fish. This oil is thought to be from the oil spill. There is only a little bit of oil in this area. Most of the gases in this area are gone. This oil is still toxic to tiny microscopic plants called phytoplankton and bacteria. The oil may be causing the bacteria to mutate. This oil spill isn't that bad, it hasn't killed as much sea life as in past oil spills. Only over a thousand turtles, 70 marine mammals, and 4,000 birds have died. The wind and currents keep most of the oil away from the critical wetlands. Most of the seafood from the gulf is still okay to eat. It is the long term effects of the oil spill that are still a worrisome.
Opinion/Reflection:
I think it is important for the government to get this oil spill under control. It is a shame that there is so much oil on the bottom of the ocean. I feel bad for al the animals in the ocean that have to deal with the oil. It also stinks how many animals died due to the oil spill. One thing though that is good is that the seafood that people eat is still healthy to eat. I really hope that they get this oil situation under control so that the ocean stays clean and healthy.
Questions:
1. How long do you think it will take to get this oil spill under control?
2. How many marine mammals died from the oil spill?
3. Why do you think this oil spill is such a huge problem to the United States?
I'm really sad to know that the oil spill hasn't totally been fixed. I know it wasn't all gone but I was hoping that it would because I didn't want our planet to receive any bad influence from humans. It's unbelievable that over a thousand turtles, 70 marine mammals, and 4000 birds have died. In my opinion, I think that is a really big number of organisms dying. If this continues, then I don't know how many more will diea and I don't want to imagine. We don't need marine animals just to eat them for seafood, the whole oil spill will eventually affect us humans and other environmental concerns if we don't take care of our planet soon enough. I would like to do all that I can to support the clearing of the oil spill in anyway. I want to let other people know and be aware of this sad event that has affected not only the United States but other countries too.
ReplyDelete1) This isn't what I want but I don't think the oil spill isn't going to be solved in a short period of time. To have full control over it will take years and years, but I really hope it'll be under the government's control and stop it from affecting animals and humans.
This oil spill has been tough on everyone, including the animals. About 5,000 animals have already died from the spill. I'm sure there are thousands more micro organisms in the bottom of the ocean who have died too. Its really sad to think that once we thought the spill was almost over, there was a lot more oil at the bottom of the ocean. We need to fix this as fast as we can. Although we may not think that we will be affected by the oil, we will eventually. The scientists may say that the seafood is safe, but who really knows if every fish or shrimp is completely oil free?
ReplyDelete1. To get this oil spill completely under control could take weeks, months, even years. It will definitely not happen any time soon, thats for sure. It took about three months just to get the oil on top of the ocean under control and now we find out that there is more oil on the bottom of the ocean. It will take us a while to get it all gone because there aren't that many people who know how to get oil out from down there, as opposed to all the shrimp boats out on the ocean. Many people want the oil gone, and maybe someday, it will be all gone.
I think that it is sad that the oil is still not all the way cleaned up when I thought it already was. I already knew there was oil underneath, but I didn’t know that not many people knew how to get rid of it. This hasn’t killed as many sea lives as past oil spills, but it still is a lot of marine life that were killed. I think about 5070 marine life dying is a lot because they can’t be replaced fast. I am also worried about the long term effect because it will eventually affect us.
ReplyDelete3) This oil spill is a huge problem to the U.S. because this was far the largest spill. We never had a bigger spill than this and marine lives are dying. It is also major news because of all the people involved and the money that needs to be paid. Finally, this is a big problem because there are a lot more oil left to clean up. This may go on for a few month or years.
Now I know more about the underwater oil and that marine lives are dying. Many bacteria are mutating and probably changing. Every time I go to the gas station, I’m going to remember the spill.
It is truly a terrible thing that is going on down at the coastof Florida. I am not surprised that it has taken this long to clean up the spill due to the sheer vastness of the amount of oil that spilled out into the ocean. I hope that it won't take much longer to clean it up, but i hope it isn't that long. Unfortuanately, I am doubtful that we will clean it up completely over the course of the next few months.
ReplyDelete2) A lot of sea life has perished due to the oil spill and I am very dissapointed by that. One, beacuse all of those innocent animals died because of human mistakes amd two, because I plan to be a marine biologist when I am an adult and this will obviously affect my future line of work.
I am anxious to see how the governmetn and BP assess the problem in the upcoming months.
That is great you want to be a marine biologist Matt!! There is also a huge boom in a field called aquaculture. These scientist work to make seafood cheaper and in places other than the ocean.
ReplyDelete